Rail Shipments of Oil Set New Record in October

A recent CD post featured the huge boom in U.S. rail traffic for transporting oil that has resulted from the huge oil boom in places like the Bakken region of North Dakota.  The chart above comes from the American Association of Railroads' latest monthly "Rail Time Indicators" and provides new details about how significant that increase in rail shipments of petroleum has been this year.  October rail shipments of oil were 19.4% ahead of the same month last year, and 34.4% above October 2009.  In the last four months starting in July, oil shipments by rail have set new all-time monthly high records  in each of those months.   

In addition to the increase in economic activity that results directly from increased domestic energy production, there are additional increases in jobs, output and economic activity that result indirectly from increased oil and gas production, with increases in rail traffic being just one of many examples. 

HT: Robert Kuehl